Rebellion
by maramoon1212
Summary: This is a huge AU that I'm writing. The four founders have started a magical court in Scotland, and have taken young magic users under their wings. However, the founders are cruel and will do anything to keep their power at court, even at the cost of their students. The students' attempts at rebellion have been crushed so far, but can they band together and succeed?
1. Prologue Part 1

It all started in 918, when four powerful magic users were thrown together. Each of them were old, older than most 'normal' witches and wizards and showed no signs of aging beyond the age of 30 or so. Caught by surprise, they were on the run, for the magical community of Scotland was being hunted down. Each had lost their homes and families and, despite their power, were relatively untrained and surviving off sheer luck alone. Their families had all been powerful and none had ever been required to fight. The Lady Slytherin and Lady Gryffindor were taught subterfuge, but no practical training had ever been offered and Lord Ravenclaw had always been a scholar. Only Lord Hufflepuff had had any training, but he had been sheltered by his family and never had to use his skills.

Once they met, they quickly decided to stick together for survival and Hufflepuff quickly taught his fellows how to fight. Eventually, the four of them became true warriors, and combined their skills to survive. Each of them had their specialties, with Gryffindor being best at battle magics, both defensive and offensive, Slytherin being especially proficient at disguise magics, and Hufflepuff knowing which plants were safe to eat. Ravenclaw, having spent lifetimes studying maps and the stars, was able to make sure that the four of them kept away from certain locations that they knew were dangerous and his knowledge of languages came in handy when they needed information.

Eventually, they managed to find a location that was relatively untouched by the wars and was isolated enough that they would not have to worry about many interactions with others, because it was surrounded by a forest that was termed cursed by the locals. They settled into the small mountain settlement and began to use the forest to practice magic again. Their personalities were all very different and what they each hoped to gain from this alliance was rarely in line with what the others wanted, but they each had skills that the others did not possess. For a while, the four of them were happy to remain there on their own, with little contact with the outside world. However soon, they became restless, and missed the life they had previously led. They had no desire to return to the society of Scotland, despite having settled there, for Scotland was too unstable and had failed to protect them, and so they went to speak to the monarchs of England.

King Alfred was hesitant but saw the benefits of having these four powerful magic users in his court and welcomed them. They became embroiled in the society of those that they termed "mundane." For some, the lack of aging now proved to be an inconvenience, such as Lord Hufflepuff, who was forced to remove himself from court every so often, so no one got suspicious that he never aged. For others, it was a mixed blessing, for while Ladies Gryffindor and Slytherin faced the same issues, they would always have a place in high society as young ladies, rather than married or widowed matrons. And for Lord Ravenclaw, who rarely involved himself in the world of court, it was merely a curiosity to be researched.

Despite involvement at court, they decided to remain living near their mountain settlement, which was far enough away that they could sufficiently withdraw, but close enough that it would not be difficult for them to return once it was safe to. The other courtiers changed often enough that there was rarely any reason for them to be away from court for long. The ruling family knew of their dilemma and gifted them for their service to England by building a castle near the settlement along a design that Ravenclaw created.

Once the castle was fully built, Hufflepuff was in charge of defending the ladies while they warded the full lands they had been gifted. Slytherin was placed in charge of disguising the location, and Gryffindor was in charge of defending the castle and surrounding areas. Together, Slytherin and Gryffindor created intensive wards, much more intensive than had ever been seen previously. During this time, they also made a point to visit the goblins, which Lord Ravenclaw's family had had dealings with, and acquire weapons.

In Scotland, the mark of the head of magical households had been a goblin forged weapon, passed down from older heads of house, to symbolize the role of protector of the family. While the four of them did not have their ancestor's weapons, they decided to honor this tradition. Slytherin had a beautiful pair of daggers made, which were enchanted to be unnoticeable while in their sheaths, and even still lay nearly flat when strapped to her forearms. Ravenclaw decided upon a spear which had protections from arrows or other projectiles built in, Hufflepuff had a war hammer made, in the image of the one that he had seen his head of family wield only once, with enchantments to make it lighter to hold, but not to deal less damage. Finally, Gryffindor chose a one-handed sword that was only enchanted to return to her if ever lost, for she preferred to rely upon her magic as much as upon her sword and any other enchantments might interfere with her casting abilities.

Soon word got around within the magical community of this castle and the 4 magic users were seen as protectors of those who had magic. They had only grown more powerful in their isolation, once they had time to truly perfect their magic, outside of the desperation of battle. Soon enough, each of the Lords and Ladies had their own magical staff and the town was flourishing.

The castle began to function as a magical court, with the society of magical Britain centered there. The main difference was the power women held, since both Gryffindor and Slytherin were as powerful as the men. It was also quite common that wizarding families were matrilineal, and while these families had an official male head of house for participation in the mundane court, this wasn't necessary at Hogwarts. In this way, the society of wizards was first differentiated from that of mundane society.

Many of the wizarding families had nearly been wiped out, making the court a haven for those who had no one left. While there was a higher society within the wizarding world, it mainly relied on how strong your magic was, so those who had been better educated by their family were seen as being better than those who had been born into a non-magical family, or even those who had not been trained at all for fear of persecution.

It was then that Hufflepuff suggested a magical school. Each of them had amassed a small following of magic users who were strong in their particular strength, but there were so few educated witches and wizards left that it was worth taking a few under their wing to tutor. The others agreed, although they did not wish to take too many under their wings. In this way, the tutoring of young magicals began.


	2. Prologue Part 2

Ravenclaw wanted only those who were interested in book learning, which required a knowledge of how to read, so he ended up taking the smallest group. His one initial student was from a magical family. Cho Chang's family was looking for a way to get rid of their eldest daughter, although she had driven away all potential marriage offers. She jumped at the chance to get away from her family to study magic. She also hoped to meet other students of magic, although was sorely disappointed, since Ravenclaw insisted on her constantly staying focused on creating new spells.

Gryffindor took those who were most skilled in combat, be it magical or physical. She had no preference for boys, even though they were most likely to have prior training. She took in Hermione Granger from a non-magical family, since she had been defending herself magically through instinct for some time. She also took in Lily Evans from a similar situation, although Lily was also more physically skilled. Finally, she took in James Potter, the only son of older parents. They were unexperienced with controlling a willful young son and hoped that he would be trained fully by Gryffindor, who was famous for her battle saw the value in training those who were untrained and took in those who had no knowledge of how to wield their magic. However, Hufflepuff expected them to renounce their families and publicly pledge complete loyalty to him only. His group was also understandably small, but were the most hardworking, since they had so much to learn. He took in Cedric Diggory, whose family had avoided training him out of fear of repercussions. He was willing to renounce his family for a chance to learn to control the magic he had been struggling with his entire life. Hufflepuff also took in Zacharias Smith, who was the youngest son of non-magical parents. He took the only chance he could to escape the parents who hated a part of him.

Slytherin was by far the busiest between the mundane court and the wizarding society that had been started, so she only took in those who had a basic knowledge of their powers. This meant that it was only children who had a family history of magic and knew how to control it because they had been taught. Those who Slytherin chose at the beginning were all aristocratic. Blaise Zabini was the only child of a single widow who was heavily involved with the mundane court. Her and Slytherin reached an agreement which allowed Blaise to get out of his mother's hair, allowing her to look for another husband freely. Lucius Malfoy was the eldest son of the newly British Malfoy family, who had arrived only a decade ago from France. And finally, Narcissa Black was the youngest daughter of the noble house of Black. The Blacks were well known for isolating themselves from court, although they had a place there. Few knew that it was because of the need to train their magical children, and Narcissa had just reached the age of 14, the age when most Blacks had control of their magic fully, although she was a bit younger than her sisters were when presented at court.

Blaise and Lucius were both 17 and were preparing to take on the roll of family heirs. This would give them a huge amount of leeway at court, as young men were often finding their way into places they shouldn't be. As the youngest Black daughter, Narcissa still had a few years before she was expected to enter court, and Slytherin planned to use this time to train her to become her top informant. A youngest daughter was hardly a noble lady, as she was expected to be a lady in waiting and only be looking for a husband. This would allow her to gather information from both the ladies and the servants of the court, a fact which Slytherin counted on heavily to expand her power within court. However, Narcissa was willful and snobbish, so Slytherin was counting on several years before the girl entered court to fully mold her into what she wanted.

However, soon Slytherin discovered that all 3 of her charges needed more work than she had previously thought. While Lucius was eager to learn, he was new in court and had little influence or knowledge of how to gain it. Blaise resented the arrangement that his mother had agreed to and isolated himself within court. Slytherin, who had little temper at the best of times, was not a kind teacher and often utilized painful magic to incentivize the three of them to become the perfect students she wanted. However, despite their shortcomings, the boys were not the ones who bore the brunt of Slytherin's anger.

So, the 4 became teachers, and taught their students everything they thought they needed to know. Lady Slytherin trained hers in subterfuge, wishing them to become her eyes and ears in parts of both the magical and mundane courts that she could not reach. Lady Gryffindor trained her students for battle, both magical and mundane, with a ruthlessness that kept those who might oppose her teaching methods silent. Lord Ravenclaw taught his students Latin and Greek as well as how to create new spells, both helpful and hurtful. Lord Hufflepuff was merely teaching his students the basics of magic and reading, but his own prowess on the battlefield was well known and kept him unchallenged. In these ways, the 4 used their students to reinforce their positions as the heads of the magical court, despite splitting their time between both.

The students would learn much, but the 4 demanded loyalty, although not all as publicly as Hufflepuff. Slytherin's students would learn to be careful to give all the information to their sponsor, as she was quick with dark magic to teach them not to withhold anything, lest they get greedy and try to gain their own power. Gryffindor was quick with criticism and quick with punishment, although her students were just as short tempered as she. Ravenclaw wanted to keep his students focused and would keep them in isolation from the rest of the court to discourage distractions. Hufflepuff demanded loyalty and any perceived lack of obedience led to punishment. However, the students knew that they had nowhere else to go, and so learned to work around the harsh punishments that each of their sponsors doled out. The punishments were also given when students from one of the 4 interacted with students from another, particularly in the case of Hufflepuff and Slytherin, since they did not trust one another not to try and seize more power.


	3. Chapter 1

Narcissa Black was frightened. Her parents had sent her to the castle of Hogwarts, which was a thriving magical hub. Narcissa had been overjoyed at the idea of learning to hone her magic even more. But this… this was not what she had been promised. Lady Slytherin was a perfectionist and short tempered. When Narcissa wore the mask that she had learned to don from her sisters, the one her mother said was befitting of her status as a Black, Lady Slytherin told her that she was nothing. The third daughter of a younger son, who would never amount to anything other than a bedwarmer for a nobleman. However, her words did not seem to be punishment enough for Slytherin. Narcissa shuddered at the thought. She had believed that nothing could be worse than Bellatrix, but… Slytherin was fully trained in magics that would make you feel like you were being torn apart but leave no marks. She would often resort to physical punishment as well, for Slytherin was adept at healing any damage she could inflict. This was where Bellatrix was less skilled, and Narcissa had never been subjected to any sort of physical punishment before. Even if she had been, nothing would have come close to the level of punishment Slytherin would mete out. Narcissa had had to crawl back to her room many nights, healed physically but still in pain. She knew that the two boys who were being trained with her were also being punished in similar ways. She could sometimes hear the screams from the lesson room after she had returned to her chambers for the evening. She had helped the lighter haired one, Lucius, back to his chambers once. He had been almost delirious, and she wasn't sure if he even remembered. If he did, he never mentioned it, but she thought that that was probably out of pride. The idea seemed foolish to her now, her pride as a Black had gotten her nothing but pain. In fact, Narcissa was beginning to feel like nothing she did would please the exacting lady who called herself their mentor. Now Narcissa was merely searching for how to act to minimize the damage. After all, that had worked with Bellatrix and her mood swings. Perhaps it would work here.

However, nothing she seemed to change made any difference. She had tried meekly doing everything the woman had told her to do, only to be punished for lack of spirit and interest. She had tried her hand at being unfailingly polite, but Slytherin had told her that she was being too nice for what she was trying to learn. Finally, she decided to play along for a while, only to have her training finally switched from etiquette and coercion, to the more physical side of things, which she was unsuited for. Slytherin seemed determined to teach her how to brew poisons and wield weapons such as her own daggers, but Narcissa had never been trained for potions and was as fit as a court lady was expected to be, which was not at all. Trying to merely go along with the routine was exhausting and impossible, as she did not have the endurance to learn to fight. This seemed to enrage Slytherin even further, assumedly since she had been doing better beforehand. It was during this time that Narcissa finally could not hold back any more.

"I cannot do this!" Slytherin had been trying to teach Narcissa the proper way to fight against daggers. Armed with nothing but her wand, Narcissa could only try to use defensive spells against the daggers that were charmed to be resistant to magic. Narcissa was nursing a cut that ran down the middle of her face. She knew it would be healed at the end of the session, but it still hurt and she was beginning to feel lightheaded from the blood loss. "You have not trained me to fight yet! I have control of my magic, but even I cannot cast spells I do not know!" She was expecting a punishment but did not expect to be hit with a spell from a wand that she had not known her opponent still possessed. The pain was unimaginable, worse than any spell that had previously been used upon her.

"I am not training you to have you tell me what to do" Slytherin ground through clenched teeth. Perversley, Narcissa wondered if anyone else had seen the refined woman be so unladylike. She couldn't help but giggle at the thought, most likely because she was in shock, which only enraged Slytherin more. "You are nothing but trash, unfit to be trained by me. I take you in out of the goodness of my heart and you cannot even be bothered to learn!" With that she dropped the knife and proceeded to continuously spell Narcissa. However, just as Narcissa felt that she would pass out from the pain, the door burst open. Blaise and Lucius rushed in and immediately went into action. Blaise began to cast defensive spells against Slytherin, and Lucius lifted Narcissa into his arms, taking her out of the room./p

"What are you doing?" she slurred out, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Lucius did not answer, but merely carried her to her chambers, where she was placed in her bed. However at this point it was too much and she finally let herself succumb to the blackness that had threatened to overtake her. When she awoke, Lucius and Blaise were both in the room, murmuring quietly to each other. Blaise noticed her eyes were open first. He nudged Lucius, whose head snapped towards her as he stopped speaking suddenly.

"How are you feeling?" Lucius asked.

"She will be furious," There was no need to specify who she was, for they all knew that they had nowhere else to go but back to Lady Slytherin. Their families would not accept their snub of such an important figure in both courts.

"We will go to speak to her together," Blaise said quietly. "Agree to be trained and to work as hard as we can as long as she no longer uses such punishment. The pot will be sweetened by my cooperation and we will work together to learn as she wants us to."

Narcissa nodded, as she knew of Slytherin's issues with Blaise. Occasionally Slytherin's temper would be taken out on her.

"Aditionally, Narcissa." Lucius interrupted her thoughts. "You were seen to by a healer friend of mine, and he claimed that he could not even properly heal the cut on your face, since it had been left so long." He conjured up a mirror for her to look at herself. The scar was red and shiny but healed fully. She did not expect it could be hidden, for it was quite large, running from the top of her left eye down across her nose to her opposite cheek.

"I see" she said quietly. After a moment she added, "I will join you to talk to her, but I have no doubt her plans for me will be ruined with my face." Blaise nodded in understanding.

"We will work together to still make you useful to her." She stood carefully and walked over to them.

"Let's go negotiate then." She stated, with a calm she did not fully feel.


End file.
